Post #36: Savannah

Saturday, November 7, 2020

I’ve fallen behind on posts to this blog, mostly due to lack of connectivity—only one bar or less with Verizon.  But today (Thursday, November 12) we are anchored behind Cumberland Island in GA, about 30 miles north of Jacksonville, FL, where Eta is passing through for a visit.  Fortunately, it will be a short visit since her winds are fierce (we’ve felt gusts of 35kts this morning) and hard to ignore.  I’ll do my best, though, and concentrate on posting instead.

I believe I last left you in the Peruvian Amazon jungle. C’mon back y’all and I’ll tell you about Savannah.

We borrowed the courtesy car (wiped it down first and kept the windows wide open) from the Isle of Hope Marina, the most welcoming and service-oriented marina we’ve stayed at yet. I loved their sense of humor, too:

First order of business was a trip to a hardware store that could refill our small propane tank.  We have 2 but since it’s impossible to gauge how empty they are, we aren’t sure how much fuel we are consuming for cooking and making morning coffee.  In a way, living on the boat is a lot like camping—you have finite resources that you have to monitor closely and conserve. A good lesson for us all.

We drove to Savannah, which is a remarkably beautiful city, even in the rain.  The Historic District is the largest urban National Landmark in the US, with more than one thousand architecturally or historically significant structures.  General James Oglethorpe laid out the city in the mid 1700’s in a series of 24 squares, 22 of which remain as lovely parks with huge canopies of live oaks and magnolias, statues, and benches—including the one that Forrest Gump sat upon in Chippewa Square while he waited for the bus.

Given the drizzle, we took an open air trolley ride around the city.  Masks are required everywhere and it’s the first place we’ve been where the streets were abuzz with tourists. Like Boston, there are a number of distinct neighborhoods, each with a different flavor and history, from the riverfront 

to the Factor’s Walk (named for the men who factored how much cotton was brought in to be sold) near the Cotton Exchange 

to the elegant homes on the squares

to the haunts of skallywags and stevedores (including the Pirate’s House mentioned in Robert Louis Stevenson’s Treasure Island) 

to the artsy influence of SCAD (Savannah College of Art and Design). The line is for Leopold’s Ice Cream, a Savannah institution since 1919!

There’s so much more to be learn about Savannah—we’ll have to come back, especially if we can stay at Isle of Hope Marina again. Here was our morning sunrise view: